If you are looking for a way to test your relationship with your significant other, might I suggest trying to fix a flat tire?
Recently, my very handy carpenter fiancée and I discovered we had a flat tire in the parking lot of a Calgary Walmart.
Over an hour later, we fixed the problem and all without fighting.
I say my fiancée is very handy because he is.
If you need him to build you a dresser he’s on it and it will be fabulous. However, if you want him to do pretty much anything car-related beyond pumping gas or washing the bugs off your windshield, he is not your man.
I too am no help as I am convinced with every warning bell that goes off in my vehicle it is a sign of immanent explosion and disaster. Therefore, it is easy to see why I may not be an expert or even slightly knowledgeable on anything automotive related, much to my father’s dismay.
Thus, you have a pair of completely inexperienced city folk stuck in a Walmart parking lot for over an hour looking at a tire that will just not come off the car.
Before you ask, yes we successfully raised the car from the ground with the use of the jack and used our body weight to loosen and remove the lug nuts from the wheel. And yes, we had to look at the car’s manual to figure that part out but still it was successfully completed with relative ease.
However, when we went to remove the flattened and now useless tire from the automobile it was as if the installers super-glued it to the car in some sort of evil joke that was completely on us.
We pulled at the tire. We tired beating the back of it with the jack. I even got down on my hands and knees in a dress to reef on the stupid thing with my full body weight.
But nothing. No sign of the tiniest movement.
We were both getting pretty annoyed at the situation and I must admit some R-rated words were said. However, we managed to direct our anger over the situation towards the source of our plight and had a good kicking session on the tire that had failed us.
At about 30 minutes into this exercise in frustration, I did what any reasonable adult would do and focused my attention on the melting ice cream bars in the back of the car.
I offered one to my fiancée but he was still convinced he could will the tire to come off.
He was starting to curse humanity as no one had even looked at us twice, let alone offered to help, in a parking lot full of people.
I could see he was working himself into a real state and I’ve learned the best way to deal with him in this situation is to be productive. So, after satisfying my need for an icy treat, I brilliantly remembered we live in an age of smart phones and Googled, ‘what to do when your tire won’t come off.’
As always, the Internet had my answers.
Following the advise of a Jeep expert I found online, my fiancée loosely screwed the lug nuts back on by hand tightening them and then drove the car for a very short while around the parking lot.
As is by some miracle or magic spell, the tire popped off with ease once the vehicle had been raised and the lug nuts removed.
I entertained my guy with a little song about fixing wheels while he put the new tire in place and in no time we were ready to go.
Once we got back in the car, I made sure to high-five my man for lasting 60-plus minute in a highly stressful situation without an inkling of a fight between the two of us.
He did ask me to stop singing though.
